Asia Cup

The Men's Asia Cup is a biennial cricket tournament organized by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). It features senior men's national teams from Asian member countries and determines the continental cricket champion of Asia. The tournament was established in the year 1983, coinciding with the formation of the Asian Cricket Council, as an effort to promote goodwill among Asian countries through cricket. India boycotted the 1986 edition due to strained cricketing relations with Sri Lanka, while Pakistan withdrew from the 1990–91 edition because of political tensions with India. The 1993 tournament was also cancelled for similar reasons. The ACC later announced that the event would be held biennially starting from 2009. The ICC recognizes all Asia Cup matches as official ODI games. After downsizing the Asian Cricket Council in 2015, it was announced by the ICC that Asia Cup events from 2016 would be played on a rotation basis between One Day International and Twenty20 International format, on the basis of the format of upcoming world events. As a result, the 2016 event was the first event played in the T20I format and functioned as a preparatory tournament ahead of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20.